Why Do Batteries Taste Sour?

Battery tastes sour but most adults recommend you not to taste any batteries by sticking it with your tongue because as you will cause acute tissue damage to your mouth. When you touch the battery with your tongue, you might feel shocked and might have noticed the battery tastes sour. But why does the shock have a flavor?

Is it the acid or anything else that makes battery tastes sour?

You might think the battery tastes sour is due to the battery acid but actually, it wasn’t the battery acid it was the taste of the electric current from the charged battery. Here is the reason electric current or battery tastes sour.

It is the taste of the electric current from the charged battery that makes battery tastes sour.

You don’t feel shocked when you touch the little knob of the battery with your hand. This is because your skin doesn’t conduct electricity well enough for a current to flow. But when you touch with your tongue, your saliva has no trouble conducting electricity well enough to make a circuit. Thus, the electron flowing out of one lead and into the other creating an electric current. On the way, they can interact with the water molecules and basically rip them apart in a process called electrolysis.

The current which enters your saliva from one lead creates hydrogen gas and leaves hydroxide ions behind. And the current leaving your saliva through the other lead creates oxygen gas leaving hydrogen ions behind. And these hydrogen ions are the ones that makes batteries tastes sour.